Game On

New Game of Thrones Set Location Spoils a Character Death That’s Several Seasons Overdue

I’m not sure this post needs a spoiler warning. The spoiler warning is right up there in the headline. But just in case you stumbled here by accident or are experiencing something funky with your vision (hey! it happens!), I’ll pop this notice right here for you. This post covers some behind-the-scenes filming info for Game of Thrones Season 6, as well as some information from A Storm of Swords, the third book in George R.R. Martin’sA Song of Ice and Fire series. Proceed with caution!

With plot and casting details very thin on the ground this year, one of the most intriguing sources for Game of Thrones speculation has been set locations. Take, for example, this stunning Spanish castle, which will be used for a Tower of Joy sequence that had wide-ranging implications about the parentage of and future for Jon Snow. News broke of a new, equally striking location that seems to confirm the long-awaited death of a character. Non-book-readers may not know it, but the Irish rope bridge up top means a death sentence for Theon’s uncompromising father, Balon Greyjoy.

Watchers on the Wall reported that Game of Thrones filming has been spotted in and around the Irish town of Ballintoy and this Carrick-a-Rede bridge, with at least one spectator claiming to have seen the Greyjoy crew on the scene. In the novels, Balon Greyjoy died off-screen in book 3. Catelyn Stark hears about it on her way to the Red Wedding. (Yes, all the way back before the Red Wedding.) The report she gets is as follows:

There was a blow coming in from the west, rain and thunder, and old
King Balon was crossing one of them bridges when the wind for hold of
it and just tore the thing to pieces. He washed up two days later, all
bloated and broken. Crabs ate his eyes, I hear.

Book readers, as you might imagine, have been waiting impatiently for Balon to kick the bucket. The three leeches Melisandre and Stannis threw on the fire back in Season 3 were for Joffrey (R.I.P.), Robb (R.I.P.), and Balon (still hanging in there!). The fact that the show has sidelined the Greyjoy plot while accelerating the death of Stannis Baratheon resulted in this common, bemused response from book readers after the Season 5 finale: “Balon Greyjoy literally won The War Of The Five Kings without ever leaving the Pyke.”

But before you start to wonder why you should care about the off-screen death-by-a-strong-wind of a third-tier character, let me tell you that, like most things in Game of Thrones, the death of Balon Greyjoy is more complicated than it seems. Earlier in the third book, Arya overhears a prophetic dream that refers to a few deaths. There’s Renly (“a shadow with a burning heart killing a golden stag”), the resurrection (oh yes) of Catelyn Stark (“a raging river and a woman that was a fish…dead with red tears on her cheeks, but when her eyes did open, I woke from terror”) and Balon Greyjoy (“a man without a face, waiting on a swaying bridge, on his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from its wings”). That last part seems to imply that Balon was murdered by a man without a face a.k.a. a Faceless Man a.k.a. the type of assassin Arya is in training to become. Did the TV show wait this long to dispatch Balon so we could see a familiar faceless face take on Balon? Perhaps Arya’s rival the Waif. (Actress Faye Marsay has been hanging around the set.) Maybe Jaqen H’ghar. Or maybe even Arya herself.

As for the part of that dream that mentions “a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from its wings,” most readers assume that’s a reference to Balon’s brother Euron Greyjoy who, thanks to an eye patch, is known as “Crow’s Eye.” The phrasing in that prophecy seems to imply that the Faceless Man is on that bridge under the direction of Balon’s brother. Fratricide, as you know, is veryGame of Thrones.

We already know that HBO put out a casting call for someone who matches the book description for Euron. (“Man in his 40s to late 50s. He’s ‘an infamous pirate who has terrorized seas all around the world. Cunning, ruthless, with a touch of madness.’ He’s a dangerous-looking man. A very good part this season.”) The prevailing book-reader theory is that the ambitious Euron had his brother murdered so he could take control of the Iron Islands. But, as you might expect, Yara Greyjoy is not about to give up the throne without a fight.

Actress Gemma Whelan has been confirmed for Season 6. So this year we’re likely to get the book 4 plot referred to as the Kingsmoot a.k.a. the internal battle between many of the Ironborn to gain control of Balon’s throne. And while that may sound a little dreary (the Greyjoys, sadly, often are), there’s huge potential for a charismatic actor in the style of Pedro Pascal to totally own Euron and shake up the Iron Islands. No confirmation yet on who has been cast as the Crow’s Eye. Some fans have their fingers crossed for Ian McShane. However, McShane is a little old for the part and given that he’s reportedly been hired for a “small but important” part, other Season 6 roles seem far more likely.

There’s one more possible implication of this rope-bridge location. I think it’s pretty clear that something more spectacular than a windstorm will be involved in Balon’s death. Otherwise why waste the money on the bridge. If he does end up getting his life cut short in a gruesome way by a Faceless Man, we may wind up seeing the grisly aftermath onscreen. Game of Thrones visual-effects guy Barrie Gower said in a recent interview:

[David] Benioff and [Dan] Weiss, when they write the outline each
year, for last two years, we got to this one point and we read this
one gag and thought “Oh my God, how the hell are we going to do that?
But this is going to be incredible!” And then it got pulled and we
didn’t do it in Season 4. And then, lo and behold, in Season 5 there
it was again. And it’s pulled again! But now, in Season 6, it looks
like we’re going to do it. Fingers crossed they won’t chicken out.

Though many speculate Gower—who specialized in prosthetics—is referring to a different long-delayed plot here, it’s possible he’s just talking about good ol’ Balon Greyjoy. After all, in the books, they do talk about his eyes being eaten by crabs. (“King crabs, I hope, to sup upon such royal jelly, eh?”) I’m not sure that counts as “incredible,” but it would certainly be eye-catching.